Where is data on taxes by congressional district?

December 10, 2010 11:55 AM

Where can I find data on US federal income tax brackets by congressional district? My goal is making a fairly accurate statement of the form "Congressperson X represents a district where Y people are in tax bracket Z."
posted by ecurtz to Law & Government (6 answers total)

Best answer: census.gov american factfinder
posted by JPD at 12:14 PM on December 10, 2010

Response by poster: It very well might be there somewhere, but I've only been able to find information for median income and poverty levels.
posted by ecurtz at 1:06 PM on December 10, 2010

Best answer: No, right above median income is P52 Household Income in 1999. You'll have to match to tax brackets yourself. I just pulled it down for Alabama to make sure; it reports the number of households in each of several income categories.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:00 PM on December 10, 2010

...and if you want you can pull data from the 2009 ACS in the same way.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:03 PM on December 10, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks, looks like it will take some work, but you're right, the data is there.
posted by ecurtz at 3:50 PM on December 10, 2010

Household income can map pretty poorly to tax brackets, though. Two households with the same gross income can have significantly different marginal tax rates, depending on factors like:

• size of mortgage deduction (zero if they rent, higher earlier in the life of their mortgage than later)
• source of income (capital gains and dividends taxed at a lower rate than salary or self-employment income
• number of wage earners (a marriage penalty or benefit, depending on the ratio of their incomes, but unavailable to unmarried or same-sex couples) -- an unmarried couple with two teenage kids, all 4 making minimum wage, will owe less federal income tax than a household with a single wage earner making 4x minimum wage
• state and local tax levels

You may be able to get from median household income to an approximation of tax bracket by getting some data about median tax deductions taken, but it would be an approximation.

And, of course, depending on what use you plan to put this information, remember that federal income tax is a much smaller portion of the total tax burden the lower your income, compared to payroll taxes and sales taxes.
posted by Jasper Fnorde at 10:30 AM on December 11, 2010